Page 104 of Anyone But Her

My phone dings with a text. I'm sure it's Birdie, telling me to come back inside.

"We have to go," I say between kisses.

"Not yet." His arms grip me tighter and we continue to kiss.

My phone dings again.

"Luke, we really have to go. Cal will wonder where we are."

He sighs. "Okay."

"Sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have done this. I just couldn't wait any longer."

"Me either. I don't know how we're going to make it through the summer." He leans down and talks over my lips. "One more."

It's a short kiss but still gets me all tingly. I can't sit through dinner like this, all hot and tingly, my mind imagining what it'd be like to be with Luke.

"Seriously?" Birdie says when we meet her outside the restroom. "I said two minutes, Taylor. That was five. Now we have to deal with Cal."

"I'll deal with him.

Back at the table Alecia is hanging on Cal, no longer interested in her meal, which she barely ate.

"What took you guys so long?" Cal asks.

"Birdie had a zipper issue," I say. "Her dress wasn't zipped all the way and when I tried to fix it, it got stuck."

"Then Birdie texted me to come help," Luke says. "Between the three of us, we got it fixed."

"You weren't supposed to tell them that!" Birdie says, pretending to be angry.

"Why wasn't your dress zipped before you got here?" Alecia asks in a snotty tone.

Birdie ignores her and puts her napkin back on her lap.

"It's a nice dress," Noah says to Birdie. "It looks good on you." He smiles at her from the other end of the table.

Wait, what just happened? Did Noah just flirt with Birdie?

"Thank you, Noah," she says with a satisfied smile that's clearly meant to annoy Alecia.

And it does. She shoots Noah a dirty look and says, "She's on a date. And so are you."

"I was just saying I like her dress." He picks up his soda.

Glancing over at Cal, I see him staring at Birdie, who's still grinning from ear to ear. This dinner is getting stranger by the second. And now Luke is back to rubbing his leg against mine.

So to summarize, Luke and I are flirting under the table, Noah is flirting with Birdie, Alecia is angry she's not the center of attention, and Cal looks angry, probably because his friend is hitting on Luke's girlfriend, who really isn't his girlfriend.

This is so confusing. And awkward. This night can't end soon enough.

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